


In the Dark

by CuriosityRedux



Series: Dragon Drabbles AU's [6]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Blind Astrid AU, F/M, Hiccstrid - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 22:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16752259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriosityRedux/pseuds/CuriosityRedux
Summary: There's been an accident.





	In the Dark

**In the Dark**   


**-**

“Come on. Let’s go see Gothi.” Hiccup pressed a hand against the small of her back, easing her forward, but Astrid shook it off with a frown.

“Stop. I’ve got it.” She wanted to be able to move around on her own. He wouldn’t leave her be, constantly hovering and touching her and trying to push or pull her from place to place. She needed to do something for  _herself_.

“It’s not a big deal,” he told her, trying to guide her again. His voice was cheerful and optimistic, the way it’d been since she’d woken up yesterday to a dark room and a dark house and a dark world. It was so irritating, so gratingly annoying. She pushed away his touch again. 

“Seriously, Hiccup,” she warned him. “Stop. ”

Then his fingers were curling around her elbow, warm and gentle. “I’m just helping. You need to take it easy for a few days.”

“Don’t  _touch_ me!”

Astrid jerked her arm out of Hiccup’s grasp so quickly that she stumbled backwards. She lost her balance, falling sprawled across the floor. Embarrassment made her face hot, but she pushed up on her hands and glared. “I don’t need your help. I don’t  _want_ it.” She searched the floorboards, feeling the smooth and dusty wood under her palms. “Just leave me alone,  _okay_?”

He was quiet. She couldn’t tell if it was a hurt silence or an angry one. That was, until he whispered, “Fine.” The ground reverberated with his footsteps as he walked towards the door. She heard it open and then close a second later.

Astrid felt her chin tremble. Clenching her jaw, she banged a fist against the floor and shrieked with frustration. Her breath was heavy and hot, her nostrils flaring as she groped for purchase. After twisting to her hands and knees, she crawled back towards the direction of her bed. Her parents had moved it downstairs for her so that she wouldn’t have to climb the stairs, but it only made her feel like a freak on display in the living room. 

Her fingers reached out uncertainly, fumbling for the legs of her bed frame. “I don’t need help,” she murmured to herself as she searched the floor. Something— a chair?— hit her shoulder, and she adjusted her direction accordingly. “I’m fine.” It took several minutes of running her hands along the boards beneath her and testing her surroundings, but she finally found the side of her bed and pushed herself up to her feet. 

Balance was an issue. It was instinct to hunch over, to stay low to the ground, but she forced herself to straighten. Astrid kept her calves against the mattress and slowly sidestepped to the right until she could lean against the wall. That would take her across the room and to the front door. There was no need for Hiccup to lead her along like a lost little sheep— she just had to use what she had to get around.

Her method of hugging the wall and taking cautious steps forward worked for a while. She was feeling proud, triumphant. And then she got overconfident and let go of the wall. She made it a few paces before her boot his the base of the hearth. Tripping forward, her knee came down hard on the brick. Her hand landed too close to the fire, making her yelp and draw it away, and she crumpled to the side in an injured little ball. 

Astrid burst into tears immediately. She scratched at the bandages around her eyes until the knot came free and she could tear them away. Tossing them aside, she sobbed and pressed her fingertips around the tender edges of her eyes. It still felt like piercing knives to keep them open, but she squinted anyways, trying to tell herself they would heal. All she could make out was the faint light of the fire to her right. Her fingers grew wet as she traced the bridge of her nose and the ring of her lashes. 

Black. Just black. A dark void of nothingness, save for the orange-ish glow trying to form off to the side. Astrid tangled her hands in her hair and pulled her knees into her chest. She shook her head as she cried, the sound pathetic to her own ears. 

Then there was a noise on the other side of the room. A sigh and the  _shuffle-thunk_ of a boot and a prosthesis across the floor. 

Humiliation stung, but not as badly as the hot tears burning her eyes. Hiccup’s armor rustled and clinked near her, and then he was sitting by her side. His arms wrapped around her and she leaned into his chest. 

"How am I supposed to fly?” she wailed, her heart feeling like it would tear in two. “How am I supposed to fight?" 

"Give it time,” he murmured. His lips were warm as he brushed them against her temples and hair. “We’ll figure it out.”

“I’m never going to see my parents again.” She coughed on a hiccupy sob. “I’ll never see my kids. I’ll never see  _you_.” Everything had been stolen from her with one poorly placed breath of fire. Her independence, her abilities, her future. She was furious and terrified and devastated.

"Shh.” Finding her hands wrapped around her knees, he dislodged her grip and brought her fingers to his face. He dragged her fingertips across the scruff at his jaw, the protrusion of his chin. Bringing them higher, over his lips, he kissed her fingerprints and traced the shape of his mouth. Then he slid them down the slope of his nose, across his cheekbones, over each eyebrow. He nuzzled into her palm.

“Don’t leave me,” she whimpered into his neck. She cataloged the salty scent of tears on leather away for a life spent dependent on her remaining senses. She wished that she could feel freckles sprayed across skin. “Please don’t leave me.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he assured her, drawing circles into the underside of her wrist. “You stayed by my side when I was broken. Now I can stand by yours.”


End file.
